Arizona shooting: Democrats' bill would protect funerals

Goal is to prevent protesters' intrusion

by Mary Jo Pitzl - Jan. 11, 2011 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Democrats in the Arizona Legislature say they will introduce a bill today to create a "funeral protection zone" to keep protesters from disrupting the funerals of those killed in the mass shooting near Tucson.

The Rev. Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas responded to the shooting by posting a video on the YouTube website, saying, "Thank God for the violent shooter."

He vowed to have his band of followers picket at the funerals.

State Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, said Democrats are asking to waive legislative rules so the bill can be debated and passed in one day, in time for funerals that will begin this week.

The bill is patterned after an Ohio law that establishes a 300-foot protection zone around a funeral location from one hour before the event until one hour after it.

"They want to protest at the gravesite of a 9-year-old girl, and we want to stop him," Aboud said.

In addition, the Republican and Democratic parties in Pima County are urging people to help form a human barricade along the funeral routes to protect the victims' families from Phelps and his small band of vocal protesters.

Members of Phelps' controversial Westboro Baptist Church picket funerals to draw attention to the church's anti-homosexual views. Members last month picketed the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards.